Thursday, October 24, 2013

Species that don't get publicity #2: Teratosaurus suevicus

The species for this week is one that seemed to be popular
for a brief time only, and was misunderstood even then.From around 1950 to 1990, dinosaur books
featured this species; Never before, and never again. It has never appeared in
a book in its real form. It has never been featured in films or
documentaries.Only one, cheap toy from
the series Monsters In My Pocket has been made of it-nothing from Safari or
Bullyland or Papo or even any model kits.This is all too bad-this animal was the Tyrannosaurus of its time, and
one of the three genera of giant predator that ruled central Europe in the late
Triassic. The first large dinosaurs were its prey.

This is Teratosaurus.It’s odd that the species had much coverage at all-it was based on the
right maxilla (that is, half of the upper front of the mouth) and related
teeth. It’s not much, but it’s enough to establish it as a large predator. It’s
about the same size as Postosuchus, its American counterpart. Of course, since
the United States has more media and paleontologists than Germany, more
material has been found for Postosuchus and it has become the posterboy of the
Rauisuchids.

The history of this genus is an interesting one. Near the
town of Stuttgart, a German army officer and natural historian, Sixt Friedrich
von Kapff found and collected the teeth and skull from the Heslach quarries.
The great paleontologist Christian von
Meyer described it in the journal Palaeontographica in his article “Reptilien aus dem Stubensandstein
des oberen Keupers” as a larger predator, grouping it with Megalosaurus, Streptospondylus,and “Laelaps” in his
group Pachypodes.In 1908, Friedrich von Huene attributed postcranial
material from Trossingen to the genus.And so a big-headedTriassic superpredator was born .Somehow (probably money), the material was
sent to London, where is still resides today in the Museum of Natural History.

Oddly enough, it was
only during the 1960s that Teratosaurus started to sporadically appear in
books. The most significant appearances of it were in 1977’s Dinosaur book by
Peter Zallinger, and 1983’s Dinosaur Time
by Peggy Paris as a sort of proto-Allosaur,. Anthony Rao’s 1980 Dinosaur
Coloring book , John McLoughlin’s1979 Archosauria ( see http://chasmosaurs.blogspot.com/2013/10/vintage-dinosaur-art-archosauria-part-1.html for more), and Dougal Dixon’s 1988 Macmillan illustrated encyclopedia of
dinosaurs and prehistoric animalsare the most vivid and memorable examples. It’s possible the species
only popped up in the 1970s revival of interest of dinosaurs. The only toy of
the species was made in 1990’s Monsters In My Pocket series of small figures,
very much in the same style as its other appearances as a “Carnosaur”

Teratosaurus is a
Rauisuchid, a name covering a group of near-crocodylomorphs (animals that
diverged from the main crocodile stock after the dinosaurs but before true
crocodilians) that were the top predators of the Triassic, dwarfing their
sailbacked Poposaur cousins and more primitive bipedal Ornithosuchids . This
group also includes the massive (30 feet long!) Fasolasuchus and slightly
smaller Saurosuchus from South America and their ancestors Rauisuchus and Luperosuchus, the North Americans
Heptosuchus and Postosuchus, Teratosaurus’ ancestor Ticinosuchusand
its successor Polonosuchus, Tanzanian Stagonosuchus, and Indian Tikisuchus.
Polonosuchus, Postosuchus, and Teratosaurus were very similar to each other,
and fulfilled the same role in their ecosystem. The recently discovered giant predator Smok
might also be a rauisuchid, and might have been the top predator of the region
over Teratosaurus.

The late Triassic
(Carnian and Norian ages to be precise) of Europe was pretty diverse, and
although the American contemporaries get far more press, finds in Germany,
France, Poland, and Britain show a large, diverse Fauna.Already herbivorous dinosaurs nicknamed
prosauropods had diversified-the large derived Camelotia, the large gracile
Efrassia, the archetypical, big, well-represented Plateosaurus and the more
obscure Ruehleia and the small,
bipedal primitive (and unfortunately named) Pantydraco andThecodontosaurus all munched on the tall
trees of the Europeans river plains. Carnivorous dinosaurs included the large
predators Liliensternus and Halticosaurus, the still-being-diagnosed
Newtonsaurus, and the tiny Procompsognathus.

Dinosaurs only
formed a fraction of Teratosaurus’ world- tiny, furry cynodonts included
herbivorous Habayia, Rosieria and Maubeugia,
carnivorous Hahnia, Lepagia, and the advanced, almost mammalian Oligokyphus. The tusked herbivore
dicynodonts, once a large, successful family, only had a few giant genera left
in the world, with an as-of-now unnamed genus from Poland. The other big plant eaters were the armored
archosaurs Stagonelepis and Paratypothorax, distinguished from Mesozoic
ankylosaurs by their plainer armor, flat bodies and piglike snouts. Small
reptiles included the trilophosaurs Variodens and Tricuspiasaurus, the
dinosauriforms herbivorous Silesaurus and carnivorous Saltopus, the piggish, beaked
rhynchosaur Hyperadapodon, and the strange arboreal Depanosaurus. There were
the first primitive pterosaurs-Peteinosaurus, Preondactylus, Eudimorphodon,
Caviramus, Carinadactylus, Austriadactylus, all of which are uncertain in their
affinities to each other and later pterosaurs. Teratosaurus shared the large predator role
with the sister genus Polonosuchus and the giant predatory archosaur Smok.
Smaller predators included the more nimble Ornithosuchus, primitive
Erpetosuchus and Apatosuchus, and verysmall Dyoplax and Saltoposuchus. The first turtle with a carapace, Proganochelys
swam the waterways with amphibians; the small pedomorphic Gerrothorax and giant
fish-eating Cyclotosaurus and Metoposaurus. The
real kings of the rivers were another group of archosaurs, the phyosaurs. The European
genera were Termatosaurus, Rileyasucuchus, Rutiodon, Paleorhinus and
Mystriosuchus, and they competed with the amphibians in the rivers and streams
of the Triassc.

All of these animals, except for the adult Plateosaurus, theropods, aetosaurs and raisuchids most of the time,
would have been prey for Teratosaurus. The raiusuchid body plan has short front legs,
long back legs, a long tail, armored back, and a large head with big, serrated
teeth. This suggests that they were ambush predators, hiding in the dense bush
or behind boulders, waiting for prey to get into range. The attack would be
swift-their limbs suggest that bipedal locomotion might have been an option for
short bursts, and brutal-their teeth evolved to carve large bloody wounds into
prey. The armored torso would defend
from the claws, teeth, and tail of a struggling prey, as well as protect them
from other predators’ attacks.A fight
between Teratosaurus and any of the dinosaurs of the day would be bloody and
probably go the Teratosaurus’ way for
their bulk, teeth, armor, and sheer brawn.

Teratosaurus and most of the other Triassic archosaurs went extinct in
at the end of the period. Some environmental catastrophe hit the world hard
enough to wipe out most of these animals. Mammals, crocodiles, pterosaurs and
dinosaurs survived, but the rauisuchids and all the large herbivores did not. So the smaller, faster, more adaptable
theropod dinosaurs took their place with species like Zupayosaurus, Sinosaurus
and Dilophosaurus as the top predators of the day.Teratosaurus was a flash in the pan
evolutionarily-large animals are vulnerable to mass extinctions, and predators
even more so.

I feel that the rauisuchids have been neglected for being so impressive
and so unique. Postosuchus does show up in some books and has made a memorable appearance
in the documentary Walking With Dinosaurs, and seems to have replaced its
European cousin in the public eye. This is a shame, since Postosuchus is just
one of these powerful predators that ruled the Triassic. I just think it’s sad that this species lost
its limelight just because it turned out not to be a dinosaur. Dinosaurs are
awesome, of course, but they weren’t the only big scary animals in prehistory,
or even the Mesozoic. These animals ate
dinosaurs and ruled their worlds as surely as any Tyrannosaurus. After all, it could eat a Velociraptor if they
weren’t separated by 150 million years.

So anyway,
Hollywood, give this guy a break. Museums, put him on display. Toy companies,
here’s a new fresh face. Authors, think about the crap you’re writing and how
this genus could perk up the place. And remember, shop Teratosaurus where you
work or play.

About Me

Hi everyone! You may know me already, but 99% of you won't. I've decided to make a blog for myself. I'm a anthropology student who has returned to his original passion for palaeontology. Ever since I was little, I've been fascinated with the weird and wonderful animals that have inhabited our planet and I've made this blog to keep this in my mind and hopefully in yours. Most people blog about their interests, and while I've got a range of interests-see history and anthropology above, not to mention zoology, astronomy, art, cooking, science fiction and fantasy films and literature, and a myriad of others, the one I want to do for a living is the study of Earth's ancient past.

On this blog I'll review papers, talk about fossils, museums, and taxa, review art, film, literature, and our culture's view of paleontology, and share memories and insights. I've been inspired by the far better blogs of professional palaeontologists, and I'll share them as time goes on. I'm also open to requests and questions of opinions, the latest palaeo news, and discussions with other fans informal and professional.

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